Can the United States Actually Buy Greenland?

 By Henry Srebrnik, [Fredericton, NB] Daily Gleaner

Recent statements by U.S. President Donald Trump indicating that he would like to “buy” Greenland, currently a Danish possession, have not gone over well on the world’s largest island. All five parties in Greenland’s newly elected parliament have rejected Trump’s calls to take over the strategically important Arctic island.

Greenland and the Faroe Islands, northwest of Britain, are semi-autonomous regions within the Kingdom of Denmark, and the United States has a strong relationship with them, including regular dialogues on commercial, scientific, and cultural cooperation. The U.S. Consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, reopened on June 10, 2020, after the first U.S. Consulate there closed in 1953.

But Trump seems serious. During talks with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the White House on March 13, he stressed the strategic importance of Greenland and maintained that U.S. control of the island was necessary for international security.

“You know, Mark, we need that for international security,” he told Rutte, even suggesting NATO should be involved, but Rutte demurred, replying only that he wanted to stay out of the debate and did not want to “drag NATO into that.”

Regarding Trump’s declarations, Danish Ambassador to Ottawa Nikolaj Harris stated, while addressing a meeting in Charlottetown Feb. 25, that this was not some idle threat: “We are taking it very seriously.” Nonetheless, he said, it is a non-starter.

The Danish government announced a huge boost in defence spending for Greenland after Trump repeated his desire to purchase the Arctic territory. Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said the package was at least $1.5 billion.

The 57,000 indigenous inhabitants of Greenland, who call themselves Kalaallit, an Inuit ethnic group, have a great deal of internal self-government and would need to be taken into account in any deals regarding their island.

In Greenland’s March 11 election, five out of six parties on the ballot favoured Greenland’s independence from Denmark, differing only on how quickly that should come about. The debate had been “put on steroids by Trump,” according to Masaana Egede, editor of the Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq.

Greenland’s pro-business opposition Demokraatit party, which favours a slow approach to independence from Denmark, secured 30.3 per cent of the votes. But the Naleraq opposition party, which is pushing for more immediate independence, came second at 24.8 per cent. The result more than doubled their share in the 2021 general election, beating the ruling Ataqatigiit party, which led the last government, by around three per cent of the vote.

Demokraatit won by campaigning to improve housing and educational standards while delaying independence until Greenland is self-sufficient. Four years ago, the party finished in fourth place with just 9.1 per cent.

Ataqatigiit came in at 21.6 per cent this year, down five percent. Its former coalition partner, Siumut, which also seeks a slow path toward independence, took 14,9, down six per cent. Their combined 36.5 per cent of the vote was down from 66.1 per cent in 2021, marking a historic defeat for a Greenlandic coalition government. The election was also the first time since 1987 where a centrist party came in first place over more left-wing parties.

The 31 members elected to parliament will have to set priorities for issues such as diversifying Greenland’s economy, building infrastructure and improving healthcare, as well as shaping the country’s strategy for countering the U.S. president’s “America first” agenda. According to recent polls, some 85 per cent of Greenlanders back moves towards future sovereignty.

“We don’t want to be Americans. No, we don’t want to be Danes. We want to be Greenlanders, and we want our own independence in the future,” Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the leader of the Demokraatit party, declared after his victory. “And we want to build our own country by ourselves.” Now, Demokraatit will have to turn its attention to forming a governing coalition.

Outgoing prime minister Mute Egede announced he would convene a meeting of party leaders to jointly reject Trump’s threats, warning: “Enough is enough. This time we need to toughen our rejection of Trump. People cannot continue to disrespect us.”

Pele Broberg, the head of second-place Naleraq, suggested that an independent Greenland would pursue a “compact of free association” with the U.S. including a defence pact after achieving independence. (Washington has such an arrangement with three Pacific microstates.) So a party that favors a closer relationship with the U.S. now has tremendous influence.

Ambassador Harris, while on Prince Edward Island along with diplomats from Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, indicated that Copenhagen is willing to engage with the U.S. over its legitimate concerns regarding the defence of the Arctic region against a potential enemy, particularly Russia. Washington already has military assets in Greenland and seems to have had no issue with this before Trump took office, he noted.

Denmark hosts Pituffik Space Force Base in Greenland, which provides great strategic value for U.S. and NATO military forces. Since the 1950s, Pittufik has enabled space superiority and provided a critical early-warning radar system that improves U.S. and NATO military capabilities in the Arctic region. 

In 1917, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies in the Caribbean Sea to the United States; the islands are now known as the U.S. Virgin Islands. Could Trump have got the idea of buying Greenland from this earlier American acquisition?